[REBOL] Re: informal /View desktop survey
From: brett:codeconscious at: 8-Sep-2002 18:03
Hi Jason,
You've made very good points. I guess a lot revolves around what people
imagine the Desktop is used for (or can be used for). I'd suggest that most
rebsites (including mine) have at least initially seen it as a type of
static browser, but if you add the dynamic/interactive element then it could
gain far more use. E.g I've added a codeconscious.com folder inside of my
local folder - the icons there represent automated aspects of
codeconscious.com website management. So in this case, the desktop becomes a
task based launcher.
In some ways, in these days of flash interfaces (or at least the possibility
of such), it might be considered nice to have more custom visual control
over the desktop by a specific rebsite. E.g if you enter codeconscious.com
you'd pick up the look and feel of codeconscious.com. On the other hand, the
constrained layout we have now allows a user to move around different
rebsites without getting confused on how to operate them.
<Blue sky>
Desktop
in my mind should point to a common working space for disparate
items. It would be interesting to investigate how different rebsites could
offer up resources to the desktop such that the user via the desktop could
combine them in different ways. E.g if rebsites offer "web services" how
could the desktop enable a user to connect different services together?
</blue sky>
As far as status items go the still present reality of dial-up constrains
certain possibilities.
The google issue is interesting. Some of my rebsite content on
codeconscious.com is already the source for generated website HTML. I aim to
make all content on codeconscious.com available via HTML and View/Desktop.
Maybe some sort of generalised rebsite to HTML generator could made.
Interestingly, if a production REBOL browser plugin was available it would
likely work against View/Desktop.
Overall I think the View/Desktop needs somehow to be incorporated into
people's daily routines. Right now you could probably divide up Desktop into
three major territories - RT, Sites, Library. "Library" because it allows
community additions and downloads is probably the closet thing to a service
in Desktop right now. Maybe desktop needs more "services", but which perhaps
are built on top/via community collaboration. This is where your suggestions
of annotate and share come in, I'm just suggestnig an overall name and a
place to plug em in conceptually. So these services things like:
"Knowledge Base" - searchable archive (distributed hopefully).
"Online Expert" - e.g chat to a really keen contributor(s).
"Code Works" - build an app in real time with others.
It would probably be easier to build these on top of IOS, if IOS became more
widely spread. But while that is true, much of the look and feel can be the
same.
My comments are a bit disjointed but I wanted throw in my AUD$0.05 in so
there you have em/it :^)
Regards,
Brett.
